Dwedit's Board

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,022

Website

enter gbc mode

Here's a little GBA program that enters GBC mode.

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Attachments:
enter_gbc_mode.mb.gba, Size: 3,160 bytes, Downloads: 5,254

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

Gausen

Member

Registered: 2007-04-26

Posts: 12

Re: enter gbc mode

Hi Dwedit.
Is this program for all GBA models or only for the first one (the one that has gb/gbc compatibility)?

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,022

Website

Re: enter gbc mode

Newer version!  Press A to enter GBC mode!
Includes source code.

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Attachments:
enter_gbc_mode.zip, Size: 5,263 bytes, Downloads: 5,964

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

GuestX

Guest

Re: enter gbc mode

Hi,

can the program damage your flashcard since gbc cartridges run in 5volts mode and the gba ones in 3volts mode?

cualquiercosa

Member

Registered: 2008-02-28

Posts: 3

Re: enter gbc mode

Hi.i would like know if that hack can be used to someway use gba and gbc cpu at same time,as a dual procesor ?

z80 is not very powerfull but you can use it for some tricks,or a background...

Some similar to ds and advance?

I know nintendo sais it is not posible,but also some "tricks" werent posible on gb and people did it.

maybe need a hardware and software trick??
thanks

Dani

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,022

Website

Re: enter gbc mode

There's absolutely no way to use the GBA and GBC at the same time, otherwise someone else would have done it by now.

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

rememberthe8bit

End user

From: Rochester, NY

Registered: 2008-02-23

Posts: 21

Website

Re: enter gbc mode

I just tried this on my Micro with  a GBC game inserted. (I just took a hacked up GBA cart and put a GBC game PCB in it.) And it did nothing, which doesn't surprise me. But, what I think is weird is that this proves the the Micro has a Z80. I thought that the Micro was just the GBA parts from a DS. Now, if we can find a way to switch to 5v mode, we may be able to play GBC games...

Also, where the Nintendo logo is supposed to be, there is just nothing, not even the usual black block. What's up with that?

EDIT:
Here are my testing results:
GBA = black screen, sound still works
GBASP (front-lit) = black screen, sound still works
GBM = video and sound work, but no Nintendo logo or black block
NDS = crazy line death
NDSL = crazy line death

I doubt the back-lit GBASP would do anything different, but it would be nice to see what happened.

P.S. Now the Administrator name has changed from Xenu, Dwedit? Are you losing the faith? :P

Last edited by rememberthe8bit (2008-03-04 6:12:21 am)

jagasian

Member

Registered: 2008-03-15

Posts: 1

Re: enter gbc mode

Can this be used to run GBC games on a GBASP, without using an emulator?

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,022

Website

Re: enter gbc mode

No, it can't.  Even though it sometimes successfully enters GBC mode, nobody has managed to get it to boot a GBC game.  Also, if you insert a GBC cartridge into the slot, the GBA immediately switches to GBC mode because the cartridge slot switch is being pressed.  So you can't even test out the effects of inserting a GBC cartridge before using the soft switch.

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

rememberthe8bit

End user

From: Rochester, NY

Registered: 2008-02-23

Posts: 21

Website

Re: enter gbc mode

I was just thinking about why the Game Boy Color mode look different on the Micro than any other system, and I thought of two possible options:

Nintendo just stuck in the GBA portions of the DS components and tried to add GBC compatibility back in, but didn't care and gave up. :) (I figured this because of the whole soft GBC/GBA mode switcher thing that never worked out.)

Or, that they wanted to make lower cost chips, and lazily removed only some of the GBC components, enough to fit on the next smaller die or something.

MasterBuller

Guest

Re: enter gbc mode

So this is basically a program that triggers the GBC screen and that's it? Can't find what's awesome about it

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,022

Website

Re: enter gbc mode

It was mysterious and cool because it also worked on the Game Boy Micro, which was supposed to not have GBC mode.

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

GBAmicroPINK

Guest

Re: enter gbc mode

I have stumbled across a working micro gba in pink and was wondering if this is a download and install process to get playable games , as I have no cartridges and have been eagerly waiting to stumble across a thread like this. Purely to find out if I can play some retro hits on the little thing , I know it has good specs for an old device which shocked me a little so thought I'll ask.

headles

Guest

Re: enter gbc mode

I have a GBA flash cart with goomba emulator combined with gbc rom to a gba file to directly emulate/launch the rom.
Instead of combining with goomba for instance...
Could this be combined with gbc rom to direct launch the gbc rom on GBA/GBASP ?

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,022

Website

Re: enter gbc mode

Even if you enter GBC mode by software, it won't help without the physical switch (and associated 5V circuitry) found in the GBA/GBA SP.

Entering true GBC mode will absolutely not help with Goomba at all, as that is a GBA program.

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

headles

Guest

Re: enter gbc mode

Even if you enter GBC mode by software, it won't help without the physical switch (and associated 5V circuitry) found in the GBA/GBA SP.

Entering true GBC mode will absolutely not help with Goomba at all, as that is a GBA program.

forgive my igorance..
running from a flash cart does not need 5v.  seems to me if we can trick the gba to GBC mode, we should be able to directly open a gbc rom.
or does the GBA need 5v as well?
i only refrence goomba as an example. my thought is to replace goomba completely with a gbc-mode launcher.

Dwedit

Administrator

From: Chicago

Registered: 2004-12-12

Posts: 1,022

Website

Re: enter gbc mode

The GBA cartridge bus isn't compatible with a GBC at all.  When entering GBC mode, a GBA becomes a GBC.  It won't talk to GBA cartridges anymore.

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"We are merely sprites that dance at the beck and call of our button pressing overlord."

headles

Guest

Re: enter gbc mode

The GBA cartridge bus isn't compatible with a GBC at all.  When entering GBC mode, a GBA becomes a GBC.  It won't talk to GBA cartridges anymore.

Its a shame to have GBC hardware in my GBASP that I never utilize with my flash cart.
Of course, I can always plug in the original cart, but I really love not having to take all my carts with me.

Thank you.
I will probably add a GB/GBC flash cart to my travel pack.